Sol Bianca : Danza del Matadors
by SurfingSpider
Summary: A fusion of the original and legacy series. Prince Yuri seeks the Sol Bianca, knowing more about it than its crew, who are unawares of the danger. However, help is on the way from an unexpected source...
1. Chapter One

Danza Del Matadors ~ Dance Of The Matadors  
  
Chapter One  
  
Another anniversary, another time to remember Percy and the pain of watching him die in my arms, knowing that it was all my fault. I remember because his most precious treasure, his gift to me, rests on a special place on my dresser in a velvet lined box, on a silken pillow; the Black Star, the perfectly smooth orb all that is left of the man who guarded it, who taught me the importance of friends and dreams, and for a little while, love.  
  
Sol  
  
The door to the rec-room opens and April steps through, wearing her ubiquitous chocker, red shirt loosely buttoned and tight black slacks. She stands in the doorway for a moment, taking in the surroundings, which is little as the lights are off, except for the bright glow of the holoscreen. From the shifting cast of light April can see three head-shapes in a row, logically sitting on the plush divan in front of the screen.  
  
She flicks on the light switch.  
  
"Hey! Turn off the light!"  
  
June's angry voice is unmistakable.  
  
The trio of heads pop up and turn, scowling. June, May and Jan.  
  
April starts at the reaction of as simple an action as turning on a light switch. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Feb looking at her out of the corners of her eyes with a typical amused smile. Face flushing, embarrassed, she clicks on the switch again and everything returns to the way it was, before she had entered.  
  
As sounds, the trio of heads turn around.  
  
"Not even a thank-you?" April says to frosty silence. She almost expects to be hissed at. Sighing, inaudibly, the Pirate carefully walks over to where Feb is. "Feb?" she whispers.  
  
"April."  
  
April smells the grapy-alcoholic smell.  
  
"Don't you ever stop?"  
  
"Eeeh. Don't start again, April. It is only one glass, in celebration."  
  
"Celebration for what?" April asks, a little too loudly. To her there is only one anniversary, a sore one that they had all shared.  
  
"June modified the projector so it can play the media-disks we found."  
  
April turned her attention to the holoscreen for the first time. The image on it was flat and full of bright, solid colours. A pair of very yellow, humanoid figures were standing in a house-like situation, one a bald man, the other a child. Both only had three fingers on each hand.  
  
"Give that to me, boy!" the older man said, the father?  
  
"No way, Homer. It's mine," the child said in return, clutching some object to his round chest.  
  
"Why you!" Homer growled and grabbed the boy around the throat with both hands, squeezing and shaking. The boy gargled, his arms and legs flailing about in the air.  
  
On the divan, June and May burst out laughing. June's that of an elder teenage girl changing into a young adult woman, May at the early stages of pubescence, her laugh still retaining its high-pitched childish quality.  
  
"What the hell is this?" April said.  
  
From beside, Feb handed over one of the many thin plastic cases they had discovered in the hundreds of years abandoned colony that they had ransacked a few days ago. April angled the case so she could see the cover in the light of the screen.  
  
"The Simpsons?" she said, baffled.  
  
Feb made a 'I don't know either' sound. "Maybe you should have a drink, too?"  
  
"No thanks."  
  
"Where were you, anyway?" Feb asked in the dark, making her voice seem richer and more mature.  
  
"Remembering an old friend."  
  
"Ah." April felt a hand on her shoulder. "It is today, isn't it? Another year gone. Don't be angry at them if they have forgotten," Feb meant the trio watching the old program, "they -"  
  
"They're young, glad they survived, looking to the future."  
  
"As you should be."  
  
"And you," April wished that the lights were on, so she could look at her best friend. The hand on her shoulder tightened. The past hurt Feb too. Until The Simpsons finished, the women thought and remembered.  
  
"Ow, dammit." Jan cursed. She had hit her shin against the side of the divan, trying to find her way in the dark room.  
  
"Need a light?" April said teasingly.  
  
Jan grunted in reply and April turned flicked the switch again, for the third time.  
  
"That was funny," May exclaimed, standing up and stretching. To show that she shouldn't be taken for a child any more, she had stopped tying her hair up in a ponytail with a big ribbon - or rather stopped June from tying her hair up with a big, shiny, ribbon - now preferring to let her hair fall long, as June wore hers, her big sister. The girl didn't want to imitate Jan's severe bleached mannish spikes, didn't have April's blonde locks, or Feb's raven curls. Her hair was purplish, June's auburn.  
  
"How do you think they made shows like that? There weren't any real people," Jan was saying.  
  
"With a computer, stupid," June said from her relaxed place in between cushions. "How else?"  
  
"Don't sound smug with me," Jan growled, she liked having something to growl at, which wasn't inanimate. June was her preferable target. Feb and April were older than her, and May too young. She picked on June because June was the one she was allowed to, and could get away with it. It also helped that June actually annoyed her sometimes. Living on a spaceship, as Pirates, with just a few close companions did that sometimes.  
  
"Nothing changes," Feb noted, watching the verbal sparring with interest. She held her glass, almost finished of its red grappa, near her chin.  
  
It was a good thing that June and Jan were only yelling at each other, poor May stuck in the middle as she typically was, laughing or grinning when her June said something exceptionally witty or degrading, cowering when Jan glared at her, telling to her stay out of it. Jan, whist older, was taller and stronger than June, by a lot. May felt scared of Jan sometimes, she could fight and shoot, and liked guns. April liked guns too, but not the way Jan did. April's guns were nice, beautifully made. Jan talked about how many bullets a gun could fire in a minute, and how much armour it could break through. But May was also glad that Jun was around, it made her feel secure, when being a Pirate was a dangerous occupation.  
  
"I suppose that's a good thing." April said, stepping out of the way as Jun passed her by.  
  
"April," May chimed, "I hope you're not upset about being yelled at." Concern was written all over her face, the child not wanting to have an angry parent.  
  
"I'm fine. I know how you all behave," April answered. "And I know that you have a school exam tomorrow."  
  
May's concern changed in a flash to alarm.  
  
"Eh, a test?" June poked May in the side. "You didn't say anything about a test."  
  
"It's just a little one." May stammered.  
  
On the sidelines, Feb took a sip, wondering how the little incident would play out.  
  
"It's 30% of your grade." April said.  
  
"30%!" June shot.  
  
May was now dismayed.  
  
"And you're staying up late? You should know better, little lady," June lectured, driving the poor May beneath the horizon of the divan.  
  
"You should have know too, June." Feb said, stepping in. "Don't you read her school reports?"  
  
Caught off guard, June collapsed into speechlessness. May, seeing her chance started to slip off the divan.  
  
"You better go to bed, May, before Feb decides to let your teachers know."  
  
May took April's suggestion seriously and scampered from the room, bursting by Jan as she returned, pack of beers under arm. Jan, used to the girl's antics wasn't too disturbed. "Want one?" she said to April.  
  
"Sure. Planning on a long night?" April asked.  
  
"I saw some action movies in the stash, I want to see how they fought."  
  
"Where's mine?" June cut in. She ducked down when Jan made to throw a can at her, instead Jan tossed the can, neatly landing it directly on top of June's hidden head.  
  
"Before then, Jan, if it's alright, I'd like to watch this movie. The history on the back is intriguing." Feb asked politely.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
Jan, June and April were all attentive to whenever Feb spoke and it had nothing to do with wine, men, or money.  
  
Feb held up the case.  
  
"Casablanca."  
  
end chapter one  
  
Director's Notes: Dance of The Matadors takes place after the Legacy series (and no finer character driven series I have seen, the last 3 eps had tremendous texture, animation quality, and story [besides the crazed Admiral]. The soundtrack, too, amazing. Money well spent.), and also incorporates the higher plot that was started in the second episode of the original series, which I will expand on because it was never finished. But it is pretty obvious.  
  
A few years have passed since the end of Legacies, everyone's a little older, hopefully wiser, but as Feb said, 'nothing has changed'. The crew of the Sol Bianca are still doing what their dreams want, sailing the Sea Of Stars (had to borrow, sorry Leiji Matsumoto! Harlock rules,) as Pirates in search for relics and booty in their unique spaceship.  
  
But, as with all my fanfic stories, I will not sit on convention, because that is stale, unimaginative (a crime the crew of the Sol Bianca would not forgive), and not my style. However, as the Sol Bianca universe is an easily expandable one, and the characters already quite thought out with history and relationships, there isn't a lot to meddle with.  
  
So I hope you enjoy my continuation on Sol Bianca: Danza Del Matadors, as much as you enjoyed the superb animation. 


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two  
  
Gyunter wished his cabin had a window to let him see the space and stars outside. Except for advanced starships like the Sol Bianca, remnants of the old Earthen Empire, which had power shields and who knew what else - doubtfully known even by its crew - the vessels that plowed the Sea of Stars could not risk the frailties of actual transparency in the hull. Images of the outside all had to be gathered by hull mounted cameras.  
  
Looking through a camera, to Gyunter it wasn't the same. There was a quality that could only be achieved, a reality, by using ones own eyes. He didn't have a vidlink in his cabin either, looking at humans through a machine irritated him even more. The manner Gyunter preferred as voice, or better, direct contact.  
  
Which was why almost invariably when someone wanted his time, their arrival was announced by knocking on his door. Tap tap. Rap rap rap. He couldn't help but think of black birds, Poe.  
  
"Enter."  
  
The door quietly hissed open. Through it stepped the uniformed Rammy. Somethings, or people, don't change.  
  
Seated, back turned, Gyunter put on his glasses, covering his afflicted eyes. He turned, a forearm on the back of the chair; an ironic grin.  
  
"I hope you did not wear your uniform while gathering information on Sybus."  
  
Rammy formally saluted his superior, despite Gyunter no longer holding any rank, save that of his reputation, a symbol far stronger and enticing than all the Marshals stars on the collective members of the Security Council, the weak creature that took over the administration of the Ludos and the Terran Fleet, after the firestorm that had been Sol Bianca killed the Admiral, and a sizable portion of the Fleet.  
  
"No, Sir. My team was disguised." Rammy answered crisply.  
  
Unable to contain, Gyunter laughed. "Good, good. And did you change your manners too? Or still behave like soldiers?"  
  
Rammy ignored the sarcasm. It was Gyunter's way, how he perceived the universe. From Gyunter's side, Rammy was locked into the Tradition, the crutch that kept him alive. Seeing Earth for what it truly was, for following the orders of an outcast, ostracized. Who could not doubt when they had authorized the order to fire a nuclear missile, still the most destructive weapon in existence (except for the Sol Bianca), at his own Admiral.  
  
"I report that my mission was a success."  
  
Gyunter's interest was focused.  
  
"Prince Yuri of the Rimwald Pact is searching for the Sol Bianca."  
  
The smile faded from Gyunter's face. He rose, a tall and imposing man. A leader. A man with principle, and vision. Reborn after the fires of Earth. Meeting her.  
  
"How close are they, do they have any leads?" Gyunter asked.  
  
"I do not know, Sir. We gained the information interrogating privateers and pirates. Those scum couldn't resist the Blue Comets," Rammy said proudly. It felt good to be proud of something.  
  
"Hmm. Maybe this is good news. If the Prince is resorting to mercenaries then he has not had much luck."  
  
"His Agents are also spreading rumours that they were responsible for killing the Zypher gang."  
  
"Clever," Gyunter conceded. "Very clever. Pirates hate nothing more than their own kind who break the rules. His chances of finding them will increase dramatically. A large bounty has been placed?"  
  
Rammy confirmed.  
  
Gyunter did not fear for the Sol Bianca crew because of pirates. Their ship would protect them. He had to admire the Prince for his cunning. The Zypher gang had destroyed themselves in an almost successful attempt to rescue the olive skinned Feb Fall, Sol Bianca crewmember, companion of April Bikirk. April. Gyunter's thoughts strayed to the gun, ancient, to Hilda, to Earth.  
  
"Did you learn anything else on the Prince's plans?"  
  
"No, Sir."  
  
Sol Bianca. Beautiful, elegant, apocalyptic. With his own eyes he had seen what the ship could do, the technological feat of humanities ancestors. Technologies long forgotten. The lure of the past, its riches, had snared him too. To rebuild Earth, the glory past. That dream, faded, on the wasteland that Earth had become.  
  
Sol Bianca. To men of power it meant only one thing. Invincibility. A shower of laser rain, ships exploding. The Admiral had gone mad for the ship. A man has powerful as the Prince would have heard of its feats, and wanted it. It was that simple. Power and more power. Was the Prince foolish enough to use force? Fail like the Admiral. Or did he have another way?  
  
Whichever way, it didn't matter to Gyunter.  
  
"The Sol Bianca must not fall into his hands."  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
"Assemble all the nearest ships, we must be ready for the Prince's move. The rest will continue their operations."  
  
"Yes, Sir!" Rammy saluted. Left.  
  
The Sol Bianca must not fall.  
  
April, are you strong enough? Are you made of the same sterner stuff as Hilda?  
  
Gyunter's jacket was lying on the edge of his bed. He picked it up. Old it was. The same one he had worn when chasing down the famed ship. Gyunter did not wear it because he thought it lucky, if he thought in those terms at all, he would conclude that the jacket was unlucky. Or perhaps not. Something had come, unexpected, from that ship.  
  
Blood. And olive.  
  
The simple dreams were the surest. The past, melancholy. The future. what you make of it.  
  
The jacket still fit, snug.  
  
Gyunter left his cabin for the Bridge.  
  
end chapter two  
  
Director's Notes: Concerning names. Each of the Sol Bianca women is named after Gregorian months of the year. January, February, April, May, and June. It is an interesting convention. For my story, I am slightly modifying the way the names were said in the animation, which were pronounced in a certain way because of how they were said by a Japanese speaking person.  
  
Thus, Mayo becomes May, as there is no stand alone 'y' in Japanese, same as Febu is Feb, not the fe * bu sounds. April's name is left alone, it is common enough as it is. I have decided to make June as the month is, rather than Jun, keeping in with the month theme. Additionally, June spoken in Japanese would be ju * neh. Both Feb and Jan are shortened versions of the whole month, even in the future it would be odd to call someone that way. It is also easier and quicker to say, and keeps with the informal rapport the women have together. In the anime, and other fictions, Jan is Janny (or Janni), a longer short form of January. I prefer a simple Jan, more suited to the tough woman's character - like her hair. June and May are the two most likely culprits to call her Janny however, June to tease, May because she is still young.  
  
Gyunter is the spelling on the Singaporese VCD that I have, and I have stuck to this name. I have seen Gunther elsewhere, but his name clearly has the 'y' in it (Japanese language, English subtitled), and Gyunter is a more interesting/exotic spelling. For Rammy I have settled on the ending 'y' standard, rather than using 'i' (also for Janny, not Janni). Consistency. 


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three  
  
G was the name of the Sol Bianca's computer intelligence. It wasn't a true AI in the sense that it would talk to the crew and make suggestions such as avoid space navigation dangers like black holes, meteor showers or the Police. But it was clever, arguably the most sophisticated computer in the known galaxy. For the crew of five, it made running a ship as large as the Sol Bianca feasible.  
  
Plus, there was the Main Computer Hall (MCH), a multilevel cavern in the middle of the big cruiser, where G, in the form of a huge holographic woman, could be seen.  
  
Jan liked to jog around the hall when she got up. She couldn't say it was a 'morning jog', because there was never day or night in space. But habits die hard.  
  
Years ago there had been a bird, living somewhere in the hall. Jan didn't know how it got there, maybe it had escaped from the storage rooms where the loot from their raids was kept; the bird was gone now, probably long dead, and in an inexplicable way it depressed the stoic woman. In a ship surrounded by the vacuum of space, the sight of a living creature as simple as a bird was a reassure gift.  
  
Around and around, circling G's holographic figure, for half an hour. The seclusion was peaceful.  
  
Sol  
  
"April!" June complained, "Jan's eaten everything!"  
  
Just what I don't want to hear first thing in the morning, April was thinking. Her hair was a mess, and she was still a little hung over from the movie marathon last night. Her stomach growled.  
  
"Don't exaggerate, June."  
  
"April, the amazon has cleaned out the kitchen. She's the first one up and we never see how much she eats for breakfast -"  
  
"Then how do you know that she's responsible?" April yawned, opening cupboards looking for a tinned container, plastic container or cardboard box - anything - that had food in it.  
  
"Because I don't eat that much, I'd get fat. May is just a girl, Feb only drinks, and you don't eat that much either. Jan exercises so much she has to keep eating."  
  
"Amazing deductive reasoning, June. You should have been a Police Officer, not a Pirate."  
  
"April!"  
  
April had by that time opened all the cupboards. "June," she said bewildered, "there's no food."  
  
Behind, June threw up her hands in dispair.  
  
Sol  
  
"I resent June's implication," Jan growled, sitting on the arm of a divan.  
  
"Resemble, you mean." June said tersely, from the other side of the common room, a large room centre-forward in the ship. The mosaic tile insignia of the Sol Bianca was inlaid on the floor around which the sofas were placed. A small waterfall and shrubs were flanked by staircases leading to the quarters.  
  
"No fighting," April ordered. "This is serious."  
  
"What about things to drink?" Feb asked seriously. Except for a shawl, she was in her nightgown, and had dark rings under her eyes.  
  
"G recycles the water and we can gather ice from -" June started.  
  
"I mean to drink." Feb repeated.  
  
"You should know how much you have, Feb. And if it's run out then you can use some of the stash in the aft bulkhead." April said.  
  
"What? I can't drink that normally, it has to age still." the glares from the other three silenced Feb. All the talking was hurting her head, anyway.  
  
"So what are we going to do?" Jan, practical asked.  
  
"Well we have to get some, obviously."  
  
"June."  
  
"Sorry, April."  
  
April rubbed her temples. "Forgetting how we came to this situation, which was all our fault, I suggest we come up with an idea. I don't like the idea of starving on my own ship."  
  
Everyone fell into concentrating faces.  
  
"How much money do we have?" Jan broke the silence.  
  
"Eight thousand, one hundred and ninety two credits," June said immediately.  
  
"It's scary when she does that," Feb said to June.  
  
"That money's for maintenance and customs. If we start using it for food and get into trouble later, we could be in real trouble." April said.  
  
"But I'm hungry." June complained.  
  
"What about our merchandise?" Feb proposed.  
  
"Our buyer wont be happy if we sell it off for food." Jan said.  
  
"We might not have a choice. It's a week to the rendevous. Can any of you wait that long?" April said.  
  
The glum faces said no.  
  
"June, what's the nearest planet with a population we could trade with?" April asked.  
  
"Why not pick any place and gather it ourselves?" Jan said.  
  
"Huh? Don't you remember what happened last time?" Feb was aghast.  
  
"Yeah, we don't have cast-iron stomachs like you do." June added.  
  
"I was just making a suggestion," Jan groused.  
  
"And it was a good one, Jan. It doesn't solve the long term problem. June?"  
  
June looked up, thinking. She was sitting with closed legs and arms. When she had the answer her face it up. "Heilsberg is only a day away, it has a population of three million on two continents. One continent produces agricultural products and the other has local-energy mines. There is no significant police force and interstellar ships are less than one per week."  
  
"Sounds good." April said.  
  
Jan was looking at June funny, wondering how the girl could pull all those facts out of her head, or even remember then at all. June could be scarily weird at times. Like when she got sick during the battle at Earth.  
  
"Will anyone there want our goods?" Feb said.  
  
"Hopefully we'll find someone interested in history." April answered.  
  
"Otherwise," Jan said cracking her knuckles and grinning, "We'll have to get it the old fashioned way."  
  
"Oh, please." June sighed.  
  
"Everybody, everybody!" May shouted in alarm, running onto the mosaic. "We don't have any food!"  
  
Sol  
  
Director's Notes: A hard decision to make is the decision of how much to give away of the various 'mysterious', backgrounds, or plots of the Sol Bianca series. While people who have watched the series should know the answers to things I allude to, other's wont, including those who have only seen one series. For example people who haven't seen The Legacy don't know how Gyunter or Rammy are, what happened, and how the Sol Bianca women are different. Those who haven't seen the original series (and the second episode) are missing a big part of what Sol Bianca is as well.  
  
I could try to find a balance between the two camps, or treat everyone as ignorant and let the secrets come out slowly and in significant plot points. Thinking about it, the latter is the approach I will take because catering too people who know the series will spoil this story for everyone else, and adversely impact on plot pace. Also, while people who know the series may know the secrets, that does not mean any or all of the characters do (this is obvious in a few important secrets!).  
  
So I suggest being and ignorant reader. Or see the series (highly recommended). Unfortunately the crowd that did the US release of The Legacy put it into 3 pricey volumes (very stupid), and the covers were terrible too; this is not an eye-candy babe series but, for the final 3 eps (really a movie length ep), a detailed character story. So rent, or find an Asian VCD source. Japanese DVDs (30 min each) are an insane 5,000 yen each (and would be Japanese language only). 


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four 

As a planet, Heilsberg was not very attractive. It looked so bad even from space that everyone one heard Jan comment "This place is a total hole." May, who had been openly excited about getting out of the ship and under a real Sun again, was dismayed. "Can't we go someplace else?" she said. "If you don't mind not eating for another week," April said back. The grumbling of empty stomachs quashed the rebellion against not wanting to land. As the crew of the stellar Sol Bianca, they did want to be seen to have some standards and not landing willy-nilly at any backwater. 

"Have you found a good place to land?" April asked June. They were all in the forward control section of the ship. Jan, who had been attentive at the firing control was now dozing back in her chair. They hadn't spotted any other ships in the system and the planet only had a few communications and weather satellites orbiting it. 

A holographic topographic map appeared for all of them to see. 

"The northern continent has a lot of mountain ranges where we can easily hide the ship," June said. "We can take the shuttle closer to the main city and use local transport from there." 

"Sounds good," Feb yawned. Without a glass in her hand she wasn't very attentive, paradoxically. 

"Okay, bring her in. Jan, prep the shuttle." April ordered. 

"How heavy?" Jan asked eagerly, wanting to know how much weaponry she could bring along, just in case. 

"Apart from the local constab, and maybe some smugglers we should have any trouble." April replied. 

Jan hung her head. 

"Don't worry, Janni," June teased, "There ought to be a lot of burly miners you can wrestle with." 

Sol 

They landed the shuttle at Grosen's port. Grosen was a large mining town a few kilometers square of low, flat roofed buildings. Presently a storm was pelting the town with hail and strong winds. The port staff accepted their story that they had just flown over from the south continent, the reply being "What the hell for?" Clearly, no one came to Grosen by choice, and certainly not four un-chaperoned women and one girl, confusion about Jan excepted. 

They asked for directions to what ever passed for markets, saying that they were hungry and were told to go to the mess hall. It seemed like Grosen was a company town with little free enterprise. 

"I don't like it here, its dark and unfriendly," May complained, holding onto June's hand. 

The mess hall was a lot busier than the port. It must have been a shift break or meal time. The hall was big and lit by harsh white lights that ran along the entire length, as did heavy steel tables and seats directly underneath. Large, thick armed miners filled the seats talking loudly and swearing in profusion. 

"I think I'll take May someplace else," June said. 

"What, can't stand the smell of real men?" Jan laughed. The width of her shoulder fit in. 

"June may be right, Jan, we should come back when it's less crowded…" April had doubts too. She didn't want her small group to be in the spotlight of a couple of hundred men. She couldn't see any other women around. 

Unfortunately the hesitation caused them to be noticed, and the first sharp intake of air, shock and exclaim, was swiftly taken up until the entire hall hissed and it felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked up into the men's lungs. 

"Women!" a gruff voice shouted. 

"Three… four? The one with the white hair looks kinda…" 

"Hey!" Jun shouted. She put her hands on he hips, opening up her jacket. 

A rather big (for a miner) miner stood up midway down the hall. An intake of air almost as sharp as that when the five were noticed happened. Then there were low mumbles as the man, bare chested and swarthy strutted towards the women. 

"What a pig," Feb said quietly. 

April was glad she said it quietly. The miner looked mean. His nose was squashed and bent; cuts and abrasions lined his face, his arms, his pecs (Jun wondered if even she could reach around them and clasp her hands), and probably his legs as well if they weren't covered by tough workman's pants (which none of the women dared to imagine). 

"What do we have here?" the miner said in a poor attempt at intelligence. 

Jun, clearly sensing that this was her arena and the others weren't capable of dealing with the likes of her miner, and his horde, stepped in front of the others. She looked around the hall, plaintively ignoring the big miner. 

"What kind of dump is this!" she echoed her space-bound words loudly. 

The hall erupted as scores of miners shot up, spilling their metal plates and cups onto the laminated floor, shouting and cursing in the manner and incoherence that Welsh miners do, with the odd Scot thrown in. 

The big miner paused, his attention gone. Thinking hard he tried to get it back. "What are you calling a dump little girl?" he shouted back and smiled, self-satisfied. 

Jan tossed her head back dismissively and tsk'd. "You for starters, you big oaf. And you better call me ma'am, cause I ain't no little girl." 

Behind, the other crewmembers of the Sol Bianca stood in silence. C'mon Jan, they all thought. 

"So you are a Sheila after all…" 

"Oh no…" April groaned. That always set Jan off. 

Scowling, Jan stomped in front of the miner, her head tilted back a good angle so she could yell up at him. Tall herself, the top of her spiky head barely reached his shoulder. 

"I'm a women dammit, but it's damn hard for me to tell if you've got any brains to be human at all." 

A few miners laughed, guffawed actually. The hall went silent and the laughter died out. 

Jan's foe twisted his thick neck. "Who was that?" he boomed, "If I find out you'll be in trouble!" 

Jan laughed loudly. "It was all of them you hippopotamic land mass! They're all laughing at you like I am." 

The miner's faces all suddenly went very serious, and Jan wondered if she had gone too far. She could hear April saying "Not again…" and put a hand to her forehead. 

Slowly, titanically, the miner's head turned back and stared down at Jun. "I don't like being insulted. Lady or no, I'm going to teach you a lesson…" 

Sol 

Director's Notes: The hardest thing to do with a multi-character story is to give each one enough 'eye time'. Certainly readers, and me the writer, will have favourites and invariably spend more time with them. Generally, in TV shows, this was fixed a little by having character episodes where the focus was on one or two of the main cast, everyone else taking a back seat. The spot-lighted character's past or present or future was revealed so they could become a little more detailed and fleshed out, and maybe even to satisfy the fans. The characters who were spot-lighted first were probably going to be the main-main characters. 

I will probably have to resort to this mechanism as well, and this chapter can clearly be seen as a Jun chapter, even though it just happened to be that way. I was thinking about hamming the situation up more (usually I write much more serious stuff [although Sol Bianca – The Legacy is very serious and I hope but to emulate its dynamics]) and might do so next chapter! 

But I will endevour to be fair-handed and give each character their fifteen minutes or more. Coming out with it, June and April are my favourites, I don't want May to be the cute ditz adolescent that is too prevalent in anime, and I think Feb offers interesting opportunities. 


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five  
  
I've done it this time! Jan groaned inwardly. The big miner was cracking his knuckles. She removed her jacket, letting it slide down into one hand and hang by her side.  
  
"Time to teach you a lesson, girl," the miner growled.  
  
"Be careful, Jan," Feb said worriedly from behind.  
  
"And lucky!" June added in a helpful tone.  
  
Jan scowled and turned her head too look at June, a stupid mistake.  
  
"Jan!" May screamed, too late.  
  
The miner's heavy punch smacked Jan in the side of the head and sent her to the floor. The watching crowd made sympathetic noises. The noises turned to surprise as Jan started to rise of the floor, holding her head, growling.  
  
"That wasn't very fair," the pirate said.  
  
"All's fair," the miner grinned, cracking his knuckles again.  
  
Jan swished her jacket at the miner's face, the metal buckle leading the attack. The miner quickly brought his hands up to protect his face and leaned back just enough not to be struck. Groggily, but still cat-fast, Jan stepped in and landed her own punch right into the miner's midsection.  
  
The miner grunted, and that was it.  
  
"Uh, oh," said April. It wasn't looking good for Jan.  
  
Jan's eyes were saucers. Then came pain to her hand. The miner's stomach was like iron! She hopped back shacking her hand.  
  
"Ha ha ha!" the miner's laughed boomed. "A good hit, I'll give you credit for that lass. But I haven't finished me meal and have the next shift so I can't play around." With those ominous words he stalked forward.  
  
Jan fell back, kicking the miner in the shins, knee, thigh, anywhere. No matter how hard her hits landed, they weren't slowing the miner down, and he always managed to set his body to receive her attack. At least she was able to avoid his slower punches.  
  
Until she found her back against the wall.  
  
May couldn't look, she hid her face in June.  
  
"Do something!" June hissed.  
  
"Like what?" April hissed back, "The others might join in if we do." And they were outnumbered, hundred to one.  
  
They both gasped in surprise when Feb set her shoulders and headed to the fight. It was the last thing either of the pirates expected Feb to do. She wasn't even slightly drunk.  
  
The miner was about to pummel Jan into the ground when Feb's maturely pitched commanding yell exploded from behind him: "Just what would your mother think?"  
  
The miner stopped in mid-swing, as if turned to stone, or ice.  
  
Feb walked around to put herself between an amazed Jan, and the petrified miner. She slapped him, hard. The sound echoed around the hall.  
  
"Would this make your mother proud? Is this what she taught you?" Feb said loudly. "Answer!"  
  
"N. no," the miner stuttered.  
  
"Then aren't you ashamed of yourself?"  
  
The miner's eyes darted around, looking for a way out or help that wasn't going to come from his comrades. They were equally stunned.  
  
"Well?" Feb pressed. Her foot tapped, tap tap tap. Her hands were on her hips and her face very, very disapproving.  
  
The miner shook his head. It was also red where Feb had slapped him.  
  
"Thank God, for that," Feb reproached. "Now go back to your bench and finish your dinner - all of it!"  
  
"Yes ma'am," the miner said sheepishly, and retreated to the utter confounded amazement of Feb's companions.  
  
Jan stood up close behind Feb and whispered into her ear, "Thanks."  
  
Feb whirled around, "Don't thank me, young lady! Causing this fuss and getting into a fight."  
  
Jan recoiled, like she had been slapped herself.  
  
May burst into a fit of giggles. Everyone, June, Jan, April, Feb, all the miners, looked at her. She tried to cover her huge grin, pull it down into a neutral flat line, but it was hopeless. She laughed again, making all sorts of strange noises when she covered her face with her hands and tried to keep it in. Her eyes were still laughing.  
  
Somewhere in the hall, the laughter was picked up. Rapidly it spread through the hall and it shook; none laughed louder or with as high a pitch as May.  
  
Jan limped back to join the small group of her friends, "Should we leave now?"  
  
"Good idea," April replied.  
  
Unfortunately Feb had other ideas. Like a queen, shoulders set, chin angled just enough upwards, she strode into the mill of miners and held her hands out to either side. By unspoken command two miners took a hand each and lifted her up onto the bench. Feb smiled down on them with such feminine gratitude that the men almost fell to their knees in worship. Spellbound, all the miners watched this regal, beautiful and wild haired woman walk down the bench, gracefully avoiding the plates and mess. When she reached the middle of the bench she stopped.  
  
"We are Sol Bianca!" Feb shouted out.  
  
"Who the hell's that?" a miner shouted, and was almost immediately flattened by his peers.  
  
"They're pirates you fool!", "Beautiful pirates!", "A female review, yeah!", "She looks just like my mum, when I left for the mines ten years ago."  
  
"We've come here for supplies, and would give our gracious thanks if you kind gentlemen would be so kind as to help us."  
  
Back at the mess hall entrance, and completely ignored, Jan said to April: "Feb is scary."  
  
April nodded, this was a part of her close friend she hadn't seen before. "Look at the way they stare at her, like she's royalty or something."  
  
Indeed, the miners stared with reverence towards Feb, and she basked in their devoted attention, skin, eyes shining.  
  
Sol  
  
Director's Notes: A bit camp this chapter. I think it needed lighter moments and Feb surprised me as well! I like it when characters do that because I think that the best stories are those acted by the characters themselves, and not the writer. The writer is simply there to put down in words what the characters do, think, and want. Not forced into any misbehaviour, they will be more real this way. On some publishers website I read that an author should write to a target audience if they want a better chance at getting published. For non-fiction this is likely a good idea (although only a little), but for fiction I think it is total dross and crappy marketing. If you have to write a story to an audience or genre then what will be written is a formula piece and not real creativity. Write honestly to yourself. 


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six  
  
Whereas the northern continent was broken by mountain ranges and mines and populated by gruff but well brought up miners, the southern continent was occupied with vast rolling plains and gentle wooded hills all used exclusively for the agricultural growth that was made possible by calm seasonal weather. In the south, there were families and commuities, all employees of the same corporation the miners to the north belonged to, the corporation in turn owned by a far-away monarch whose strange order Prefect Armadeus Judah read for the umpteenth time.  
  
It was a strange order because every single ship, colony, business and planet the Prefect's monarch owned or ruled had been sent the order. Like all official dispatches, Armadeus had read it obediently at first, then tossed it to the side wondering for a moment why he had received such a strange order: to notify the Prince himself if either or both of two women (photos included) had been recently seen in their (the Prefect's) vicinity.  
  
Looking at the attractive women, Armadeus knew that there was no possibility that they would come to his patch of rock in space for all the money in the universe. Why would they? Heilsberg was a boring world full or boring people, but he, aged sixty-four and 'retired' to the backwater, liked it because it was boring, stress-free.  
  
But not now, the antacid pill dissolving noisily in another glass of pure water, Heilsberg's serenity was going to be disrupted by the arrival of a squadron of the Prince's own Royal Flotilla. His own orders were to make sure the women - he had been told five in all - were to stay on-planet until the squadron came to meet them.  
  
Drinking from the glass Armadeus ruefully thought how it would have been better for him not to report on the arrival of the women at Grosen, and he cursed the port manager who had inquired about their arrival, supposed from the south. He just knew that the meeting the Royal Flotilla had in mind would not be a friendly one.  
  
What had the women done, who were they?  
  
A golden blonde, and a dark-skinned brunette. There was something familiar about the brunette, her face. vague. but, Armadeus chuckled, who would not want to think that they knew her? She was beautiful.  
  
Sol  
  
Marquis Fernon du'Mans was a distant relation of the Prince, and so royalty, and so again allowed to captain a royal ship of the line. On the busy bridge of the destroyer Immolator he stood with hands clasped behind his back, staring out into space with satisfaction.  
  
The Marquis was satisfied because it was he who was going to recapture the exotic Feb Farlan for his Prince, and likely have choice of the target's friends as well. He chuckled.  
  
"How long?" said the Marquis.  
  
Below him by a long bank of panels and irritatingly blinking lights was the XO. "Twelve hours, Sir," the XO replied, thinking to himself, half an hour less than the last time you asked and half an hour before that. Pompous git.  
  
"Good, good. Let me know when we arrive, I am retiring to my quarters to prepare a speech and to be fully rested for the occasion."  
  
"Yes, Sir," and good riddance. Let me run the ship, and you play captain, the XO grumbled mentally. By all rights and fairness the Immolator should have been his ship after Count Rogan had been transferred to the Prince's own squadron. But the he wasn't royalty and so could not command a ship, no matter how small, of the Royal Flotilla. Maybe it was time to move back to the regular navy. or to take up that offer with Earth.  
  
Sol  
  
Fernon reached his large and comfortable quarters, located behind heavy blast shields and armour in the middle of the ship. Sitting down next to his Prince's order, he looked at the pictures of his Prince's target, and her friend.  
  
Again he exclaimed at their beauty, pining for a moment over the dark trussed Feb. She could only be a fantasy, for the Prince wanted her, and her ship. Yes, the famous Sol Bianca, even at the Court it's name and exploits were whispered. Rumour had it that the Prince had lost the ship, and this fiery Feb some years ago. And if the rumours about the ship were even half true then it was a powerful marvel. Too bad there wasn't an image of the Sol Bianca.  
  
The Marquis contented himself by looking at her, and her: April. A strong willed one, she looked. Self assured, confident. Making her his would be an experience, to have a woman like that, breaking her in, even the Prince would be jealous. Once he had her, unlike the Prince, he would not let his woman get away.  
  
"Ah, the thing we men do for the hearts of women." Fernon mused to the empty air. "I must sleep, and be ready to met them as the Prince's man." And blonde April would be his.  
  
Sol  
  
Director's Notes: Every good (or decent) story needs good villains. And not villains who are exceedingly evil or cruel, or bumbling fools. Villains have to be as rounded as their goodly counterparts: they need personality and motivation. It is too easy to create super-villains who have all the power, strength, and weapons that make the heroines task seem all but impossible, but they are able to overcome (predictably) anyway. Villains need to be in a position of strength however, of who would take them seriously? But a position of strength does not have to mean power/weapons or hordes of suicidal followers etc, it can be that the villain has some hold over a heroine and uses that to abuse/control her (like a drug, incriminating evidence, and so on), or the villain can be 'ordinary' and just plain evil. 


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven  
  
"Thank you, you are all so gracious," Feb drawled sweetly to the crowed of waiting miners who looked at her expectantly like children wanting to be complemented, which Feb was doing. Their leathered faces brightened and the leader, a much smaller miner than the one Jan had stood against, bobbed his head saying: "It is the least we can do."  
  
What the miner was referring to was a pile of crates of provisions that had been quickly collected for the Sol Bianca and her welcome crew, above all for Feb who had dazzled them, and her friends with unknown charm. Aside to April, Jan asked about Feb, April replying that she was just as mystified.  
  
It was after the meal and so most of the miners had gone back to work. A few with RDO's (rostered days off) or were sick remained and helped of just fawned, not having seen a flesh and blood woman in months or years.  
  
Aside from Feb, everyone was quite embarrassed to be in each other's company and went out of their way to be polite to each other. Jan wanted to help out carrying some of the goods but the miner's wouldn't have any of it. Reluctantly she backed away, feeling like an old grandmother. May bounced around for about an hour before getting bored and tired of remarks about how she reminded a miner of his daughter or sister, back wherever in space his home planet was. It was really depressing for the child. June collated the contents of the crates, and strangely she was the one least talked too, the miners kind of wary around her. May sat down on one of the crates, totally bored.  
  
"I'm bored," she said.  
  
"Go play or something," June said, distracted by a manifest.  
  
"Where?" May drew out like children do. "There aren't any other kids here."  
  
"Well, I don't know. wander, but don't go too far."  
  
May shook her head and hopped off the crate, immediately occupied by another one. In black tights and a soft purple stiff dress, she wandered over to April and Jan. They were talking serious, adult things and took no notice of her. So much for them! She didn't want to be petted on the head by another miner and so picked one of three corridors and clomped down the left one, the sound of her hard heels echoing in either direction.  
  
There is nothing to do here and the place is full of old ugly men. I want to get back to the ship. God, I even want to go back to school, at least my friends will be there. Since coming aboard the Sol Bianca, May had continued her education 'online', going to a virtual school. June had hacked an invitation and acceptance for her into a mid-tier secondary school. The best thing was that her friend - boyfriend June teased - was there too. She had made a lot of other friends too, and was missing them now. Only her closest closest friends knew that she was a space pirate, one of the dreaded Sol Bianca! They oooh'd and ahhh'd at her stories about defeating a huge Earth fleet, and rescuing Feb and, and, and. Her friends didn't have any good stories, their parents were merchants or government workers and took dull holidays. May bet that some of them lived on worlds like Heilsberg. Ugh.  
  
May continued to clomp down the corridor, lost if she cared to notice, trying to make the each step louder than the proceeding one on the metal floor. It came as no surprise then when a man poked his head out of a room and yelled at her to "shut up!" May went red in the face and crept away as quiet as a very quiet mouse (which are considerably stealthy indeed).  
  
And it was a good thing for her that she did. Rounding a corner at the speed of a stalled glacier, she managed to overhear an ominous voice speaking.  
  
". gathering foodstuffs My Lord. no they only came in a shuttle. follow? . Yes, I understand."  
  
May crept up to the doorway - it was open - and peeked inside. On a fixed swivel chair was a uniformed man leaning over a console and speaking into a microphone. May squinted and concentrated on her hearing.  
  
"Yes, yes, I will be at the port to direct the police when they arrive."  
  
May gasped. Police! She had to warn the others.  
  
The man had stopped talking.  
  
Twisting on heels, May burst into run just as a hand reached out to grab her - missing.  
  
"Hey, come back here!" the man shouted after her. May could here him running after and knew that she wasn't going to be fast enough. If she had been practicing jogging like Jan every morning then maybe, but she hadn't. Frightened she sped down the corridor looking for somewhere to hide.  
  
There was a door! Throwing out her arms she slammed it open and looked behind. The man was still after her. She kept running and had the strange sensation of feeling nothing beneath her feet. Looking back to the front, her body already hurtling down the unexpected staircase, she saw the grated floor rise up at her at astonishing speed.  
  
Sol  
  
"How are we going?" April asked June.  
  
"Good," said June looking up from her manifest. "This should last for a while."  
  
April nodded. "That means we can spend more time treasure hunting."  
  
The mention of treasure lit up June's face. "We should be able to leave soon, if we can drag Feb away from her admirers."  
  
"Yeah," April groaned. "They're certainly wrapped around her little finger. by the way, where's May?"  
  
Blinking, May looked around and shrugged. "Off exploring I guess. She said she was bored."  
  
The answer is good enough for April. "If she isn't back by the time the cargo is loaded on the shuttle we'll look for her."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Sol  
  
Groggy, but awake, May stands before the door she had run through. Pulling and turning, and cursing, she can't open it.  
  
"April. June. there's trouble coming."  
  
Sol  
  
Director's Notes: Not much to say but time to give May the spotlight for a little while. In both series she is a girl, in Matador a few years have passed since the Legacy series and she is now a teenager, but still prone to childish behavior. I think that as she is growing up, June will be a detrimental surrogate-parent/big sister. June never had a childhood of her own and is prone to spoiling May, very apparent in Legacy on the pirate station where even May was feeling embarrassed. So June's attention will emotionally keep May a few years younger than she really is until she manages to stamp out he own authority onboard the ship and become a mature individual. To help her along with this she probably needs the attention of the elder women, April or Feb but they generally leave her in the hands of June. Only Jan seems to be concerned too much about her welfare. 


End file.
